


the softest touch, the sweetest thing

by taichara



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-21
Updated: 2014-09-21
Packaged: 2018-02-18 07:18:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2339855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taichara/pseuds/taichara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes all it takes is just a little nudge; and the next thing you know, damnation is hot on your heels.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the softest touch, the sweetest thing

His hand still throbbed sometimes, a phantom pain that sent a shiver cold enough to freeze his spirit racing down his spine. And when those tear-inducing sparks of agony jolted from the pale round scar left by that blood-stained spike, he shook as he remembered what that thing had done ...

Yet here he was, in the dim light of a single lamp, lying alone across his neatly-dressed bed in the half-shadow; with the softly-gleaming golden thing hanging above him, twisting slowly on the silky new black cords as he dangled the Ring from his once-maimed hand and watched the sharp claw-pendants sway in the fluttering light.

As the Ring turned slowly the blood-sharp claws seemed to tremble and shiver, reaching blindly out to him as they had once dug into the pale flesh of his breast.

He should rid himself of it, this he knows all too well.

But it calls to him still, this strange thing dark and gold; in silken voice, without a word, it calls to him to only give it just one more briefest of moments ...

 _I regret,_ it seems to tell him, _I regret what I've done.  
It was too many long years trapped alone in the darkness –- you understand that, don't you?_

He does, indeed; of all things he understands being alone. Alone in this empty home, alone without kin to laugh with, cry with; always on the outside now, always staring in from the outside.

He doesn't like to be alone.

With a sigh he drops his hand; cries out softly as the heavy golden weight impacts with his breastbone, tangles the sharp pendants in the soft wool of his sweater. It would be so much better to never worry about being alone in the dark.

_~ I thought that they would hurt you, leave you, and so I hurt them first. ~_

The soft dusky voice threads through his mind, no longer a serpent's poisoned fang but the brush of a gentle night-wind.

_~ But they were restored, weren't they? I did no lasting harm. Only sent them away so that you could keep them with you forever ... ~_

_~ Let me return, let me support you in your shadow; only bear me again and you need never be alone ... ~_

_~ I won't hurt you now like I did before. I thought you would cast me aside ... ~_

Conflicted, torn, he clenches a hand in milk-pale hair as his eyes slide closed; and he wraps stiff fingers around the darkly gleaming gold, holds it tight to his heart -- but never lifts it to wrap silken cords around his slender throat ...

It has hurt so many people! And it took away his life, those he met –- for good or ill -– drew his blood, and offered no remorse ... til now. But surely he could find a way to win it to his side, some tome or ancient myth to show him the way.

Faint tears glitter on the heavy lashes as he lies there in the half-dark. Could such a thing ever be worth that price –- to take that risk again and let this creature, dark and gold, inside?

But -– oh, only, only –- to never again be left in the dark ...  



End file.
